The discussion occasionally detoured into dicta, like Tanenhaus saying it’s “harder to write a good novel than to write a good non-fiction book,” and dispute. Philadelphia Inquirer Book Critic Carlin Romano’s suggestion that book editors match what they want reviewed with experts in the field met with disdain, largely because, as San Francisco Chronicle Book Editor Oscar Villalon said, experts can’t write. Like so much else in this stimulating panel discussion, that’s open to discussion.
Among the disappointments: Bob Dylan, a finalist in biography/autobiography for his “Chronicles, Vol. 1,” didn’t show, but that was to be expected. Among the surprises: a claim by John Freeman, a critic whose work seems to be published everywhere, that American fiction is inferior to continental (the LA Times’ Wasserman vigorously disputed that; I do, too).
Among my favorite readings and presentations: “Windfall,” an astonishing, mesmerizing poem by finalist Brigit Pegeen Kelly, who was up for her book, “The Orchard”; “Queen of Scots” author John Guy’s discourse on the biographical process; “Blue Blood” author Edward Conlon’s wonderfully expressive homage to the policeman’s career; and Patrick Neate’s disarming comments on his hip-hop book, both before the award and, particularly, when he won it. The other criticism candidates, spanning veterans Richard Howard and James Wood and relative newcomer Craig Seligman, seemed far more orthodox than British “bloke” Neate. Other than Neate, the criticism candidates also seemed in excessive thrall to the recently deceased Susan Sontag.
Article comments
1 - John Freeman
Carlo:
I think you misunderstood my point -- I don't believe that American fiction is inferior. I was simply pointing out to Johnson, who *did* argue it was a weak moment for American fiction, that believing that shouldn't prevent you from expanding the circle of books you think might affect American life -- from Orhan Pamuk's "Snow" to say Monica Ali's "Brick Lane." I mean, we had books by Joy Williams, Annie Proulx, Philip Roth and Russell Banks last year for starters. Not bad.
The bigger question I wanted to think about was how do we allow fiction the space to remain fantasy when it seems more and more that a novel has to Say Something Important About Right Now to be successful.
JF
2 - Phillip Winn
John, But is it possible for a novel to not say something important about right now? It hardly seems go, given that every book I've picked up lately tries. I'm not sure if that's because authors have trouble leaving that out, or because publishers pick up on that, or if maybe it is the fault of we the readers, seeking out and spending money on the things which affirm our own views.
3 - Rodney Welch
Nice roundup, Carlo, sounds like it was a good meeting -- and I especially like what Tanenhaus said. Just recently I reviewed this really awful book for a newspaper, and the editor has apparently freaked out for good about running it when he heard from someone else that the book was actually good. It’s good to see an editors who aren't neccessarily bound to conventional opinion.
I do tend to lean toward Romano's view about experts in the field reviewing (presumably non-fiction) books -- I'd be interested, for example, in what Henry Kissinger might have to say about Jared Diamond, to cite only one expert who can write.
Regarding Mr. Freeman's remarks: it's interesting that the novel of the year, Gilead, didn't really Say Something Important About Right Now. Of course, I guess you can argue than any book is relevant at some level, but that one really went against the grain -- this story of a dying preacher in the 1950s writing a letter to his son, pondering at length the nature of grace and forgiveness. The book has no little messages about George Bush or 9/11 or multi-culturalism; the thing that's weird about it, more than anything else, is that it's a great book that comes from a frankly devout point of view that is almost unthinkable among the literati. It's a very lonely kind of book when you look at it in the sea of American fiction of the past twenty years; it's the one novel I can think of that none of the other novels would much want to play with, which is what makes it such an exciting, bracing, unsettling read. There's nothing else out there lately (in my experience anyway) like it. It's a novel by a Christian that isn't, thank God, "Christian fiction."
4 - Eric Berlin
Very cool, very interesting gathering and review, Carlo.
Big Picture question: was there any discussion of literature versus genre fiction, or was concentration more on non-fiction and political writing?
Random question on a small point: Is there a Lower West Side in Manhattan? I've never heard of that before. Are you sure you weren't in the West Village? Is the New School located in the NYU buildings near Broadway and 4th St.? That's pretty much the Village or NoHo then. Just some NYC semantics for you.
5 - Eric Olsen
thanks Carlo, super report from live on the scene, much appreciated!